"Red Dawn" Movie Review

Poster for "Red Dawn".

"A group of teenagers look to save their town from an invasion of North Korean soldiers." (Source below.)

Directed by first time director, usually stunt coordinator, Dan Bradley and written for the screen by Carl Ellsworth ("The Last House on the Left", "Disturbia", "Red Eye") and Jeremy Passmore ("Special"). It is based upon the 1984 screenplay by Kevin Reynolds ( wrote the screenplay for "Fandango" better known for his directing "Waterworld", "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves", "The Count of Monte Cristo", "Tristan + Isolde") and John Milius ("Apocalypse Now", "Dillinger", "Dirty Harry" - uncredited) with the story by Kevin Reynolds.

Screenplay is available here: http://screenplayexplorer.com/?p=1229.

Chris Hemsworth.

Starring Chris Hemsworth ("Thor","The Avengers"), Josh Hutcherson ("Journey to the Center of the Earth", "The Kids Are Alright", "The Hunger Games"), Josh Peck ("Drake and Josh"), Isabel Lucas ("Immortals", "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"), Adrianne Palicki ("Friday Night Lights", "Legion"), and Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("Watchmen", "The Possession", "P. S. I Love You"). Their character names and stories are unimportant. 

I am mostly disappointed in this movie, but I'm not entirely sure how they could've made it better. It seemed pretty doomed from the start. 

I felt like there was information missing. I just wanted to know more about the enemy. I knew they were North Korean and a few Russians, but that was it. I didn't know enough about the lead bad guy to develop that certain amount of respect and dirty admiration you're supposed to hold for the dark antagonist. I knew I wasn't going to find out more about the awesome weapon they had, but that still irritated me. But who needs information in the middle of what could be the next Michael Bay wannabe action film. 

(L to R) Adrianne Palicki, Josh Hutcherson,
Isabel Lucas, Chris Hemsworth, and Josh Peck.

At least you can see the explosions in a Michael Bay movie. You can't even see any action because the director used the dreaded shaky-camera effect. I guess mostly to cover up a bad editing job, which was still apparent in the final product. Why, oh why, do they use that effect! It doesn't do anything for the film and it looks like you're trying to cover up bad effects and editing, but it just makes that more obvious. 

And if you're going to give me an action film that has tragic death scenes, DO NOT kill off the only actor who is shouldering the movie along! Kill off everyone else, but don't kill that guy off! That part was a surprise, but it mostly just ticked me off. I did not pay money to see the only actor doing a good job in the movie get killed off just before the end. 

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (L) and Chris Hemsworth.

And Josh Peck annoyed me to no end. And not just because of his bitchy character. All his acting involved was squinting. No matter what was going on. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan was only in it for fifteen minutes and he was the only one making me laugh. 

This movie was just a series of momentous annoyances to me. The whole thing was just uninspired. Although it has inspired me to see the original. I heard the explosions in it are visible.

I give this movie 2.5 out of 5 typewriters.